Maximum points from the first three games is impressive, but the way in which Kansas City Wizards accomplished that feat might be more impressive.
The Wizards made a third-minute goal stand up for three points Saturday in a 1-0 victory against the New England Revolution, the defending Eastern Conference champion.
Kansas City had a three-goal outburst to win its season opener, overturned a 1-0 deficit in the second half last week and made Jimmy Conrad's header from a Jack Jewsbury corner kick stand up against the Revolution.
"Good teams have to be able to win by one goal, whether that's 1-0 or 2-1 or whatever," Wizards coach Bob Gansler said. "This game could have wound up 4-3. There were chances on both ends."
The Wizards had a chance to take a two-goal lead in the seventh minute but Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis saved Josh Wolff's penalty kick.
But the Wizards kept the lead until the end, posting their first shutout in the three games.
"It showed that we can win different kinds of ways," Wizards forward Davy Arnaud said. "I think that was something we were lacking at the end of last season."
Gansler said Arnaud has been a key player in the first three games because of his high amount of energy in putting pressure on opponents with the ball.
"Davy has been this energetic and this important for us," Gansler said. "For sure he's a humble guy to tell you they are watching 7 (Eddie Johnson) and 15 (Josh Wolff) and they don't think that the 22 (Arnaud) can do much. So he takes advantage of that.
"He was our most effective guy today. That's a credit to him. That's also a credit to Josh and Eddie because they draw the double teams more often. If you look at it, Davy has that one guy to run at. That's like a kid in a candy store. That's exactly what he's looking for."
Conrad, playing his first league game of the season after surgery to repair a sports hernia, said any self-doubt about his fitness to play was erased in the Wizards' midweek exhibition against Missouri State in Springfield, Mo.
"I was a little more nervous, to be honest, just because that was my first action stopping and going," Conrad said. "There is a new drug called adrenaline that comes when you play and that adrenaline really helped me not feel any pain and get out there and go."
After he scored, Conrad pointed towards his injury to indicate that he is ready to go.
"It's kind of a confidence thing. Just to get (the goal) pretty early made me feel good about what I had done and all the work I had done to get back into shape and to be able to contribute to the team," Conrad said.
With 87 minutes to hold on to the lead, the Wizards had to keep the pressure on the Revolution.
New England had only two shots on goal in the game, one in each half.
"I thought we did a good job in the second half to get out and pressure them and not let them get into a rhythm and knocking the ball around in the midfield, which they like to do," Arnaud said.
Part of that was keeping possession of the ball, especially in the first 30 minutes of the second half.
"You never have a enough possession for a coach," Gansler said. "You just don't want the other guys to have it. But we're getting better at that. I think we had it for longer periods of time and there were more quality sequences than we had in Houston (one week earlier), for example."
It all added up to a shutout, the first this season for the Wizards and goalkeeper Bo Oshoniyi.
"At the end of the day, defense wins games and defense wins championships," Oshoniyi said. "So we want to make sure we are good defensively. Tonight proved that we can do it and now we just have to continue to do it."
Robert Whitman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
